
P^z/ 






UNIVERSAL AMNE 




CONGRESS 



7423 



REMARKS 



HON. ISAAC C. PARKER. 



OF jMISSOXJRI, 



IN REPLY TO MR. BLAIR, OF MISSOURI ; 



DELIVERED 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



DECEMBER 21, 1871 



WASHINGTON: 
F. & J. RIVES & GEO. A. BAILEY, 

REPORTERS AND PRINTERS OF TUB DEBATES OF CONGRESS. 
1871. 



r 



&&S 






UNIVERSAL AMNESTY 



Mr. Blair, of Missouri, in the course of hia 
remarks in the House of Representatives, on the 
"1st December, upon the question of amnesty, 
:imong other tilings said: 

"But. Air. Spciiker, I am told these men com- 
mitted a great criiue; that they arc unworthy of 
confidence, and beneath the notice of the American 
l>eo|)le; sni'i that such unmistakably '* the doctrine 
lichl by tbe Republiean party of this Union. What 
crime, ,"\Ir. Speaker, have they been guilty of? Is 
the crime committed by them in 1S61 in rebelling 
against this Government any greater than that our 
forefathers commi ted in raising the standard of 
revolution agiiinst the mother country. England? 
Is treason by American citizens against the Ameri- 
can Government a greater crime than treason by 
Briti.sh citizens against the British Government? 
The people of the southern States to-day are guilty 
of n<» greater crime, legally considered, than that 
of which our forefathers were guilty when they 
rebelled against the Government of England." 

In reply thereto 

Mr. PARKER, of Missouri, said: 

Mr. Spkaker : I had not expected to say any- 
thing upon this occasion ; but I am not satisfied 
that the sentiments which liave fallen from my 
colleague [.Mr. Blaiu] shall go to the House and 
the country as a reflection of the views of any 
clas.s of people in the State I have the honor in 
part to represent. I do not believe, Mr. Speaker, 
that in the great State of Missouri — a State 
that was torn to tatters by the rebellion, a 
State which has required the efforts ot an ener- 
getic and determined people to place it again 
on the road to peace aiid prosperity — I do not 
believe there is in that State to-d.ay more than 
one man who would be wiliingto avow uponthe 
floor oflhe American Congress sentiments sucli 
as have fallen from my colleague to-day, and 
I believe that one man is the distinguished 
gentleman who has just addressed you. You 
^cannot go to either the Democratic or Repub- 
lican party of that Stale today and find any 
man who is willing to stand before the country 
and the world and justify the enormity, the 
crime, the degradation and wickedness con- 
nected with the system of American slavery 
as it existed before the war. Yet we find the 



gentleman here to-day going back even to Holy 
Writ for the purpose of justifying the system 
of slavery which existed here. 

The gentleman ought to know that we are 
living in a lirighter and better day, when the 
rights of man are looked upoti as sacred, when 
it is the highest aim aiul noblest purpo.se of 
the good and true to assist and elevate the 
downtrodden and oppressed, rather than to 
justify or apoloarize for the system which de- 
based and degraded them. A new era ha.s 
dawned upon our country — an era in which 
"peace on earth and good will toman" is the 
polar star of the Christian statesman, and of 
the great mass of men and women who look 
upon all mankind, no matter (;f what Christian 
faith or nationality or color, as men and broth- 
ers. We arc indeed living under a new order 
of things. Men now seek to be governed by 
right and justice, rather than by oppression 
and wrong. It is a period when it may be said 
with some show of truth " that mercy and truth 
are met together, righteousness and peace have 
kissed each other." 

The gentleman, while exploring the records 
of the despotism of past ages, apjiearsto have 
forgotten that it was proclaimed by the Sa- 
viour of the world, when He taught tiie mul- 
titude and through them all mankind, '• thai 
all things wiiatsoever ye would that men 
shotJid do to you, do yo even so to them, foi 
this is the law and the prophets." 

The gentleman is living in a past age. The 
times have outrun him. He is unable to keep 
pace with the progress made in favor of the rights 
of man during the last ten eventful, terrible, 
bloody years of our national history. Jn that 
time slavery has been abolished ; its crimes, 
its wickediips.-, the degradation and misfry 
entailed by it are now lully known at)d haied 
by men. Andall gootl men say '• Oh ! what a 
monster was this which fastened itself niion 
our system of government; what a Pro- 
methean vulture was this which preyed uf^on 
!l the verv vitals of our institutions and well 



nigh wrought their overthrow!" We are trying 
in this age to forget the evils and wrongs of 
the past. If men would but recognize the 
fact that slavery is dead and buried in the 
same grave of infamy with treason it would be 
better for the nation, better for its citizens, 
better for the cause of humanity, and better 
for the rights of man everywhere. If men 
would but endeavor to go forward instead of 
backward, if they would but keep pace with 
the mighty strides toward liberty and security 
for all, which the nation has made in the last 
decade, then we could say that America is the 
propagandist of democracy and that we have 
instituted the OTily successful republic of 
ancient or modern times — a republic which 
has been rendered sacred by the loyal blood shed 
in its defense ; a republic of which the founda- 
tions have been cemented by no unrighteously 
spilled blood ; a republic founded on reason, on 
the unalterable principles of humanity, neither 
twisted nor forced fiom their natural channels to 
harmonize with vice, wrong, and oppression. 
Then we would know that American repub- 
licanism, with commerce and the arts of peace 
as its weapons, means the advancement of the 
human race. 

But as long as gentlemen undertake to 
move the finger of destiny backward instead 
of forward on the dial-plate of time, as long 
as they endeavor to justify or gild over the 
wrongs of the past instead of denouncing them 
as crimes against God and humanity, just so 
long will the true hearted and patriotic fear for 
the safety of the great Repiiblic. 

Why, I thought that the party with which 
the gentleman has lately commenced to act 
were asking us on this side of the House that 
we should forget all the wrongs inflicted upon 
the Government and its citizens in the past. 
We have tried to forget them. We are for- 
getting them, excepting the lingering re- 
mains of crime, which are the legitimate out- 
growth of that institution of slavery. There 
is no other man in this House, whether he 
sits on that side or this, who would think for 
a moment of justifying human slavery as it 
was in America, justifying an institution which 
was anomalous as connected with a Gov- 
ernment which proclaimed itself to be a 
Government instituted for the protection of 
the rights of all men — a Government founded 
upon that immortal principle which declared 
all men were free and equal. Why, both 
political parties in this country, as 1 under- 
stand it, are willing to acknowledge, they 
are daily acknowledging, that slavery was 
a crime, that it was a great wickedness, that 
it did so warp and degenerate and draw aside 
from the path of duty the minds of the south- 
ern people as to place them in direct. hostil- 
ity to our Government. They all concede 
that, and the gentleman is the first member 
of this House who has been willing to put 



himself upon the record as justifying that 
institution of slavery ; or, to put it as mildly 
as possible, of apologizing for it. 

But, Mr. Speaker, it is not this sentiment 
which is most obnoxious to the people of my 
State, though it grated so harshly on the ears of 
the members of this House when it was uttered 
by the gentleman. He asks the question, was 
it any greater crime for Americans to rebel in 
this country against the American Government 
than for our forefathers to rebel against the 
Government of Great Britain? I want it dis- 
tinctly understood, that although we had one 
third of our population in the State of Mis- 
souri in armed hostility to the Government of 
the United States during the rebellion, I do 
not believe to-day in that State there is any 
man who will put himself on the record as 
taking a position of this kind. I cannot ex- 
plain my friend's position in any other way 
than by attributing it to the enthusiasm of a 
new convert. I do not understand there is 
any gentleman on the other side of the House 
who would maintain that rebellion against the 
Government of the United States was no crime. 
The gentleman does not seem to be willing to 
put himself in that position by declaring that 
it was no greater crime than that of our fore- 
fathers against the Government of Great Brit- 
ain ; but he asks the question, thereby evidently 
intending to convey the idea that one was no 
greater crime than the other. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, let us see how that was. 
We all know that in 1861, when rebellion burst 
on this land, when the people of the South 
were dragooned into it — because I am willing 
to concede, and 1 have believed all the time, 
that the masses of the southern people were 
led into this unholy and wicked strife for the 
overthrow of the Government by their lead- 
ers — immediately before Sumter was fired upon 
on the 14th of April, 1861, every department of 
this Government v/as in the possession of the 
southern people or of the party which had been 
the champion of their cause. All the prominent 
offices of the Government were held by men 
from that section of the country. They had 
every department in their possession. They 
had enjoyed the patronage of the Government 
from the time of its formation to the time they 
rebelled to a greater extent than the people of 
any other section of the country. Then, did 
they have any right on that ground to under- 
take to tear down the Government and build up 
in its stead a great slave empire where slavery 
would be the rule and freedom the exception? 
Well, what other rights of theirs were in- 
vaded? The gentleman said their slave prop- 
erty was in danger. If there was any agitation 
wiiich grewup in this country and which soughi 
to endanger their slave jiroperty, pray tell me 
who began it? This question was understood 
in the political history of the country to have 
been settled entirely by what was called the 



Missouri compromise. Who sought to violate 
that compromise, and to drag slavery before 
the nation once more? Who opened up that 
controversy and sought to viohitc that compro- 
mise in order that other Territories might he 
brought into the Union as States, which, in the 
language of anotlier, "should be compelled to 
submit, to the l)at(^fnl embracps of slavery?" It 
was the party which had its scat and center in 
the southern part of tlie United States. TIk; 
slavery question was practically settled by tiiat 
compromise line. It was taken from Congress, 
and it was taken, as an agitating cause of 
trouble, from betbrc the country. Yd it was 
reopened; legislation was commenced upon 
it again and by this very party. 

Well, it might be said lliat in consequence 
of a party t'uat was unfriendly to slavery elect- 
ing a President of the United States that in- 
stitution was rendered insecure. I want to 
ask the question whether or not that President 
did not in every declaration that fell from his 
lips pledge himself to protect slavery under the 
laws of the country? I want to ask the ques- 
tion whether or not that President, after he was 
installed in office, did not in one instance 
return to slavery men who were seeking free- 
dom? I want to ask the question whether or 
not the position was not taken by that Pres- 
ident in his inaugural message that this insti- 
tution was to be as safe as it could be made 
under the laws of this country ? I want to ask 
the question whether or not the American Con- 
gress did not pledge itself to protect slavery 
in the States where it existed? Then, what 
reason was there upon that ground for this re- 
bellion? There was no reason anywhere for 
it. There was no reason that can be given 
that was a true one, except that which has been 
given so many times before to the country — 
the desire upon the part of a few men in the 
southern States who sought to build up a slave 
empire ; men who hated freedom and who loved 
bondage ; men who desired a government where 
aristocracy and caste should rule ; men who, 
when they found they could not control the 
American Government to such an extent as 
to subvert it from the design of its original 
founders, sought to build up a government that 
should have in it an element of aristocracy, 
which should recognize the rights of the few, 
and leave unrecognized and unprotected and 
uncared for the rights of the many. That was 
the reason of this rebellion. 

The fact, that the southern people, or most 
of them, were made to believe that slavery was 
endangered, was only one of the means that, 
was resorted to by those men who sought to 
'• tire the southern heart'' and to precipitate 
tlu; cutton States into rebellion. Then, what 
becomes of the inquiry as to the relative crini- 
inality dC this rebellion against i he Governmeni 
of the Uniti'd States and that of our forefathers 
against Great Britain? 



Mr. BLAIR, of Missouri. I would like to 
ask the gentleman a question. 

Mr. PAliKKi{. of Missouri. I yield to the 
gentleman for that purpose. 

Mr. BLAIR, of Missouri. I remarked tliat 
the oflTenst! of those who rebelled against the 
Government of England w;is that they had 
violated the laws of the land, and that the 
people of the South had done nothing more, 
and that both were guilty of treason, and that 
those who rebelled against this Government, 
so far as crime was concerned, could not be 
any more guilty than our forefathers were. If 
the gentleman can make a distinction or a 
difference there 1 would like him to do it. 

Mr. PARKER, of Missouri. I can see very 
little distinction between the position assumed 
by the gentleman in the first instance and 
that assumed by him now. There is a differ- 
ence, however, between the cases he has men- 
tioned. Everybody recognizes, the world over, 
that there is an inherent right existing in 
mankind to overturn established order as a 
dernier ressnrt for the protection of human 
life and human liberty and human property. 
But in this case we had a Government that 
guarantied, theoretically and practically, pro- 
tection to all these elements of human happi- 
ness ; in the other case we had a Govern- 
ment that sought to degrade and debase life 
and liberty on this continent. In one case we 
had a Government controlled by the very men 
who lifted the wicked and impious hand of 
treason against the flag of our country ; in 
the other case we had a people whose inter- 
ests were controlled three thousand miles 
across the briny deep. In one case we had a 
people secured and protected in every right 
that they were entitled to under any system of 
government ; in the other case we had men 
who were entitled to rights that were not pro- 
tected by the Government. The simple differ- 
ence and the simple distinction between the 
two cases is that our torefathers had a just 
cause tolhrow off the yoke of English tyranny, 
and those who rebelled against the Govern- 
ment of the United States did it without a 
shade of a shadow of a cause. Our forefathers 
struck for God and liberty : those who rebelled 
against our Governmeni struck for despotism 
and slavery. 

Mr. BIjAIR. of Missouri. In vour opinion. 
Mr. PARKER, of Missouri.' Well, does 
the gentleman think that they liad a cause? 

Mr. BLAIR, of Missouri. lam not passing 
judgment upon that. My argument is drawn 
from the conscience of those who were engaged 
in the rebellion. 1 did not involve myself in 
it, for it is known tliat I have been anti-slavery 
for years, but I was treating it from the stand- 
point of those who were engaged in the rebel- 
lion, who had held the institution fora century 
or mon.', and I say tinit ihit pnople, so longas 
they believed that slavery was riglit, could have 



6 



no conscientious scruples, or believe they were 
guilty of crime. 

Mr. PARKER, of Missouri. That does not 
answer my question. After I had assumed a 
position here, my colleague said, "That is so, 
in your opinion." Well, that is so, in my 
opinion, and I hope to Heaven that it will 
, always remain so. Now, I want the gentleman 
to be equally fair with me, and to give the 
House his opinion as to whether he thought 
it right or wrong. 

xMr. BLAIR, of Missouri. Slavery right? 
Mr. PARKER, of Missouri. The rebellion. 
Mr. BLAIR, of Missouri. The rebellion; 
no, sir. I never believed it was right. 

Mr. PARKER, of Missouri. That answers 
my question. 

Mr. BLAIR, of Missouri. But then I am 
not the judge of their conduct. They are to 
be held responsible for their own conscientious 
views on that subject, and not mine. And so 
it was with our mother country, England. 
She regarded our forefathers in the same light 
that you today regard the rebels in the South. 
They looked on them as traitors, as rebelling 
against one of the best Governments on earth. 
They used the same arguments that you use 
to-day. 

Mr. PARKER, of Missouri. The gentle- 
man answers my question at last, and says he 
does not believe the rebellion was right. I am 
very sorry to see my colleague put himself in 
the position of becoming an apologist in this 
House for that which he believes was wrong. 
There is a distinctive difference between right 
and wrong, and whenever a gentleman is sat- 
isned that a matter is wrong he ought never 
to justify it or to become its apologist. 

Mr. BLAIR, of Missouri. Will the gentle- 
man say in what sense I am the apologist of 
the rebellion? 

Mr. PARKER, of Missouri. I have been 
very indulgent to my colleague. 

Mr. BLAlR, of Missouri. I hope the gen- 
tleman will not make statements unless he gives 
me the opportunity of asking questions by way 
of explanation, at least. 

Mr. PARKER, of Missouri. I will answer 
the gentleman by quoting on him the remark- 
able speech that just fell from iiis lips, and if 
that was not an apolog}^ and not an etfort upon 
his part to justify this crime against the Gov- 
ernment tiien I fail to understand the meaning 
of the English language. Why, even our col- 
leagues upon this door, the honorable gentle- 
men who have been admitted here, who were 
disfranchised under the laws of the country, 
and who are now entitled to sit here with us, 
and who are our peers here, are not found jus- 
tifying ihis rebellion by any means. They are 
not doing it. No man upon this floor does it, 
except as it has l)eea done by the genth^man 
here to-day. And the time has come, 1 think, 
in this country, if we desire peace and harmony 



and prosperity throughout the whole extent of 
this broad domain, when gentlemen should not 
only cease to justify the rebellion, but sliould 
commence to denounce it as a crime, and not 
only as a crime of ordinarj- extent, but one 
that was extremely wicked, one that caused 
the destruction of hundreds of thousands of 
the bravest and best men in the land, one that 
destroyed millions of property, one that still 
leaves its scars upon the institutions of this 
country, one that came nigh tearing from 
beneath this noble governmental fabric of 
ours the very foundations upon which it rests. 
And I want to say here that as the gentle- 
man has become suspicious of the Republican 
party, the party he has been acting with in 
the past, the party he claims that he fought on 
the side of during the war, I want to say here 
that so far as that party is concerned, although 
we may occasionally hear the charge hurled at 
it that it is illiberal and proscriptive and tyran- 
nical and all that sort of thing, there is not 
a party whose acts have been recorded upon 
the pages of the world's history that has deeds 
of charity and forgiveness and kindness writ- 
ten upon its record in such burning letters of 
light as has the Republican party of this na- 
tion. It is a party of charity and a party of 
forgiveness. Tell me, Mr. Speaker, a govern- 
ment under the sun which, alter men had re- 
belled without cause, without a decent pre- 
text, without any justification in the world, 
and after they had caused ruin and destruction 
and devastation such as was witnessed upon 
every hand at the close of this war in 1SG5 — 
tell me of a government that would have dealt 
so lightly witli the leaders of that rebelliou as 
the Government of the United States, under 
the controlof the Republican party, has done. 
Almost every demand that has been made 
by those men who were in the rebellion has 
been complied with by this party. They came 
up here after the war, asking that they should 
be recognized. The Republican party said 
there was one condition-precedent, which was 
that we must have guarantees that they would 
no more lift the hand of revolt against the 
Government. The Republican party said to 
them, " You must insure protection to life, lib- 
erty, and property to every citizen in your 
section of the country, from the highest to the 
lowest." When those things were giiarantiod, 
those States were admitted to representation 
in this House and in the Senate. When that 
was done it was believed that time would 
heal the harshness that had been left by the 
rebellion. 

Butwhatdo we witness to-day? An attempt 
is being made in some localities of the veiy 
region of country that was ni revolt against 
the Govennnent to do what? To protect life, 
liberty, and property? No. sir; but to crush 
out of existence men whose only crimes seem 
to be that they are black, and are loyal to the 



'Government. This question can no longer be 
lone of controversy. The matter has come up 
'in the courts of the country, where facts have 
t been developed that ouj;;ht to cause the chec-k 
of every honest man fu blush for shame that 
such infamous conduct should be practiced 
under a Government pledged to the protection 
of the life, liberty, and properly of the citizen. 

The fact that there are men banded together 
for the purpose of destroying the rights of 
others in the southern States, because they do 
not agree with them in political sentiments, 
is no longer a mooted question. The wonder- 
ful and astonishing thing is that an attempt 
should be made to justify such conduct. Who- 
ever heard of an attempt to justify murder 
because the victim may be said to have com- 
mitted some crime? Why should these name- 
less crimes in the southern States be excused 
in the manner in which it is done here? 

We hear a great deal about the necessity of 
general amnesty. Sir. this House at it last 
session passed a bill, for which I together 
with a great majority of the Republicans iu 
this House voted, and which went over to the 
other House, from whose provisions are ex- 
cluded only about one thousand men in all the 
United States. A stranger in this land, unac- 
quainted with the rights which all citizens en- 
joy under the laws of the United States and 
of the several States, would understand from 
the remarks of my colleague [Mr. Blair] that 
men were terribly oppressed here ; that in 
some sections of the country they were deprived 
of their rights as citizens. There is not a State 
in this Union, except perhaps there may be 
one, where any man is disfranchised, where 
every man has not the right to vote, unless he 
is a criminal and disfranchised by the judg- 
ment of a court. They all have equal rights 
in that respect. The man who bared his bosom 
in the cause of his country, together with the 
man who raised his arm against that country, 
both alike can go to the polls and vote. Is 
there no charity, no kindness in that? 

And let me tell the gentleman that that was 
^,ot granted by this Government because the 
>yal people of these States did not believe 
hat rebellion was a crime. No, sir ; it was 
pimply granted as an act of charity, and in the 
\ope that those who received that charity 
Mild be able to appreciate that act of gen- 
erosity and kindness, and would be willing in 
the future to stand side by side with every 
good citizen for the protection and security of 
the Government of the whole country. That 
is why that right was granted to them, notwith- 
standing the great crime they had committed. 

Now, who are those who are not included in 
the provisions of the bill of amnesty passed 
by the House at its last session ? Thoy are the 
men who brought ruin upon the southern States 
and desolated them ; the men who caused them 
to be laid waste, who caused the residence of 



the planter to be lighted up with the torch of 
the incendiary, who caused the lurid light of 
war to glimmer upon every mountain-top, on 
every hill-side, in every valley in the southern 
States. They are the men who, in 18til, stood 
up in the Senate Chamber, and, as they pre- 
pared to leave the Hall, said they would have 
a Government to suit their selfish purposes, 
and, holding up their white handkerchiefs, 
boasted that their efforts to do so would not 
cause blood enough to flow to stain tiiem. 
Those are the men who to-day, through the 
mouth of the gpntiemati here, are asking that 
we should deal liberally with them. 

Sir, the Republican party of this country 
has no feeling of unkindness for the people of 
the South. The Republican party knows no 
section, neither North nor South, neither Ea.st 
nor West. It is the only truly national party 
that has ever existed in the history of this Gov- 
ernment. Its advocates, and those who believe 
in its principles, can be found among the ever- 
glades of Florida as well as amid the snow- 
capped regions of Alaska ; they are every- 
where. The Republican party is national in 
its character. It has no feeling of unkind- 
ness toward the people of the South who were 
drawn by their leaders into rebellion. Every 
step they have taken to bind up the bleeding 
wounds of this nation and to heal the differ- 
ences of the past has been characterized by 
kindness, and forbearance, and forgiveness. 

I know we hear it said that the Congress of 
the nation has been guilty of harsh legislation ; 
but 1 ask, has Congress, in its efforts to heal 
divisions and cement the people more closely 
together, ever passed a law that was not 
intended for the protection of the innocent 
against the efforts of the guilty to deprive 
them of their rights? Then why should men, 
if they are guiltless, if they have not imbrued 
their hands in the innocent blood of those men 
who were lately emancipated, characterize our 
conduct as a party by those harsh and oppro- 
brious terms which they are constantly hurl- 
ing against us? I can say to gentlemen upon 
the other side that the Repul)lican party of this 
country will go as far as themselves toward 
enfranchisement or anything else, if you can 
satisfy it that the country is perfectly secure 
and that by such a measure the harmony and 
prosperity of the nation are to be promoted. 
But it does not look well for gentlemen to stand 
up in the House of Representatives of the 
United States and plead for a man who but a 
few short months ago proclaimed to the south- 
ern people, who were becoming quiet and peace- 
able once more, that their cause — "the lost 
cause," the cause of treason, the cause of 
those who sought to tear down the Govern- 
ment — was not dead, but only sleeping. 

I do not believe the lime has quite come yet 
that a man of that kind should be permitted 
to stand side by;aide with and as the peer of 



\ 



Charles Sumner iu the American Senate. I do 
not believe, for one, that the time has quite come 
for any such thin^' as that; but I will go as far 
as any one toward giving enfranchisement and 
all the rights men can enjoy under this Gov- 
ernment to the masses of the people of the 
southern States, to the men who are willing to 
recognize the fact that we are living under a 
new order of things ; that a new era has dawned 
on the country, an era where liberty is the rule 
and despotism and slavery the exceptions. 

x\nd, Mr. Speaker, let me say to my friends 
on the other side of the Chamber that it seems 
to me, when they are advocating the rights 
of the South, when they are advocating the 
claims of the southern people, there are many 
thifigs which they are neglecting here — not 
intentionally, of course. There is a work of 
reconstruction which can go on j , ^nd which 
can bi-ing about peace and harmony to a greater 
extent than has-yet been permitted, and that 
is, for them to seek to develop the resources of 
the fertile country they may have the honor to 
represent. There issome disposition in some 
localities of the country to keep out capital 
and enterprise, because they may happen to 
come from some other section. This is surely 
wrong. This work of reconstruction will be 
only fully consummated, will be only fully 
carried out, entire peace, security, and happi- 
ness will only reign, when commerce shall 
carry its good work into those States, and when 
capital and enterprise from all sections of the 
country shall be invited among them. It seems 
to me this is the most practical work to which 
gentlemen from that section of the country 
could devote themselves. 

And let me say, Mr. Speaker, that the Re- 
publican party does not believe that the rebel- 
lion was not a crime. It has sought to brand 
it as a crime. It has sought to place its infamy 
where it can be read by him who runs. At 
the same time it is willing to go as far as the 
safety and security of the country and the 
prosperity and happiness of the people will 
warrant it, in granting amnesty to these lead- 
ers. It is now only the leaders who are ex- 
cepted, not the masses of the people who were 
dragooned into this thing. We know that 
hundreds and thousands of them were not 
conscious of what they were doing. The Re- 
publican party has recognized that. All their 
misconduct has been obliterated, in a legal 
point of view at least. It is only the leaders, 
the men who persuaded them into it, and soon 
there will only be a few, comparatively speak- 



ing, of those who remain. I think we have 
gone as far for the peace of the country in 
that direction as we ought to go at this time. 

No man asks these men, the Republican'' 
party has not asked them, to get down on their 
knees and ask forgiveness. The gentleman is 
mistaken if he thinks the party with which he has 
heretofore acted has ever asked at the hands 
of these men any such thing; but it is asked. 
it is demanded at their hands, that they shall 
assist in guarantying the rights of all men, 
no matter who they may be. Until they show 
a willingness and disposition to do that, until 
they show a willingness and disposition to 
recognize the rights of colored men in those 
States, as well as the rights of white men, I 
think the Congress of the United States ought 
to deny to these men equal rights in this Govern- 
ment. I believe that to be the sentiment of 
the people in my State. I do not believe the 
people of the great State of Missouri to-d-s-y 
would vote for any such measure as the gentle- 
man has proposed. I do not believe that it is 
any reflection of their sentiments when gentle- 
men on this floor claim that the Republican 
party, being the dominant party of the nation, 
is cruel, unjust, illiberal, and proscriptive, when 
it fails to recognize the fact that Jefferson Davis, 
and Toombs, and Stephens, and all these men, 
are entitled to the rights of all other citizens. 
There oughtto be some distinction somewhere. 

Gentlemen say we admire these men who 
fought against the Government. We may ad- 
mire their courage, but we hate their crime, 
and that is about the view we take of this mat- 
ter ; and, speaking as liberally as we can while 
there is patriotism existing in the country, 
while there is love of country in the breast of 
man, I hope there will be a majority of the 
people of the whole land who will hate any 
attempt to subvert the Government of our com- 
mon country. 

It is as well gentlemen should recognize the 
fact that there are other things to be taken into 
consideration besides emancipation from this 
cloud which hangs over Jefferson Davis. There 
are a few humble peojDle in the southern States 
whose rights are as sacred to the Republican 
party as the rights of the most pow-erful in 
the land, and I think we ought to be able to 
guaranty protection for life, liberty, and prop- 
erty to those people before we grant amnesty to 
men who are still striving to fan the flames of 
hatred, and to cause them to burn with more 
intense heat against these people than ever 
before. 



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